Data from: Identifying future zoonotic disease threats: where are the gaps in our understanding of primate infectious diseases?

Background and objectives: Emerging infectious diseases often originate in wildlife, making it important to identify infectious agents in wild populations. It is widely acknowledged that wild animals are incompletely sampled for infectious agents, especially in developing countries, but it is unclear how much more sampling is needed, and where that effort should focus in terms of host species and geographic locations. Here we identify these gaps in primate parasites, many of which have already emerged as threats to human health. Methodology: We obtained primate host-parasite records and other variables from existing databases. We then investigated sampling effort within primates relative to their geographic range size, and within countries relative to their primate species richness. We used generalized linear models, controlling for phylogenetic or spatial autocorrelation, to model variation in sampling effort across primates and countries. Finally, we used species richness estimators to extrapolate parasite species richness. Results: We found uneven sampling effort within all primate groups and continents. Sampling effort among primates was influenced by their geographic range size and substrate use, with terrestrial species receiving more sampling. Our parasite species richness estimates suggested that, among the best-sampled primates and countries, almost half of primate parasites remain to be sampled; for most primate hosts, the situation is much worse. Conclusions and implications: Sampling effort for primate parasites is uneven and low. The sobering message is that we know little about even the best studied primates, and even less regarding the spatial and temporal distribution of parasitism within species.

背景与目标：新发传染病通常起源于野生动物，因此对野生种群中的病原体进行鉴定具有重要意义。学界普遍认为，针对野生动物病原体的采样工作尚不充分，在发展中国家这一问题尤为突出，但目前仍不清楚还需开展多少采样工作，以及采样工作应在宿主物种和地理区域层面聚焦于何处。本研究针对灵长类寄生虫的相关研究缺口展开分析，其中诸多寄生虫已成为威胁人类健康的病原体。研究方法：我们从现有数据库中获取灵长类宿主-寄生虫记录及其他相关变量。随后，我们分别分析灵长类动物的采样强度与其地理分布范围大小的相关性，以及各国的采样强度与该国灵长类物种丰富度的相关性。我们采用广义线性模型（generalized linear model），控制系统发育自相关或空间自相关效应，以模拟不同灵长类动物和不同国家间的采样强度差异。最后，我们利用物种丰富度估计器（species richness estimator）推断寄生虫物种丰富度。研究结果：我们发现，所有灵长类类群及各大洲的采样强度均存在不均衡性。灵长类动物的采样强度受其地理分布范围大小和栖息基质利用模式的影响，陆生物种获得的采样量更多。我们的寄生虫物种丰富度估计结果显示，在采样最充分的灵长类动物和国家中，仍有近半数的灵长类寄生虫尚未被采样；而对于大多数灵长类宿主而言，情况则更为严峻。结论与启示：针对灵长类寄生虫的采样工作存在不均衡且覆盖不足的问题。一个令人警醒的结论是，即便对于研究最为深入的灵长类动物，我们对其相关寄生虫的了解也极为有限，而对于物种内部寄生虫的空间和时间分布情况，我们的认知则更为匮乏。